Sunday, January 30, 2011

Nutella Truffle Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies

I’m almost speechless with this one. I “blame” this creation on one of my blog readers and an amazing, fantastic artist, Lisa Ernst. <- Check out her work. Anyway, somehow we were chatting about the cookie love of our lives---chocolate chip. Then she mentioned how good a cookie with a chocolate truffle in the middle would be. I was reminded of my most viewed blog post still to this date--Molten Lava Chocolate Chip Cookies (Nov. 2008). I made chocolate chip cookies in ramekins with a Dove chocolate in the middle. I then tried it with Hershey's Mint Truffle Kisses in the cookie. Good, too!

While chatting with Lisa, she mentioned how good it sounded to have a chocolate truffle inside a chocolate chip cookie. I began playing around with homemade truffles and chocolate chip cookie dough. I whipped up some quick ganache with some bittersweet chocolate and cream and tried a few ganache truffles tucked inside a cookie as well as a couple placed on top of a cookie when it came out of the oven. Both were great!

I liked how the ones with the truffle on top stayed thick and truffle-like. Then something made me think of Nutella. Nutella Truffles. I’d never even really thought of that before. I did a quick search on the internet for Nutella Truffles and found many different recipes. I settled on an idea I’d found on a forum and traced this person’s recipe to one from one of Carole Bloom's books. This one is quite simple. Melt some chocolate, then stir in some Nutella. Let it harden in the fridge, then form it in to balls. It is such that you think it will be too hard, but roll some into a ball with a small cookie scoop and it works. It’s messy but fun. To combat a little bit of the smeary chocolate all over my hands, I rolls the balls in cocoa powder. I put them on a plate and stuck them in the freezer. Made my favorite cookie dough. Chilled it for about an hour. Then I began forming dough around the truffles. I tried some inside, some on top of baked cookies and I tried one with dough in a ramekin with the Nutella truffle hidden inside. These are really good! If you are any kind of a Nutella lover, you must try them. I know that World Nutella Day is coming up—February 5. Celebrate!

The Nutella Truffles melted down on top of the hot cookie a little more, but it’s really good!

The ones with the Nutella truffle hiding inside—like striking gold! That is good stuff. As if that wasn’t enough, the cookies are loaded with dark chocolate chips and studded with chopped hazelnuts. Then—the one baked in a ramekin—ooey, gooey and GREAT with a little ice cream on top!

12 ounces chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips), roughly chopped-roughly chopping is optional, but I like having chocolate all throughout the cookie)

1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, chopped

In bowl of electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add the egg and vanilla and beat well (about 2 minutes). Scrape sides of bowl.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk together. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Do not overmix. Just before it is all combined, add the chocolate chips and nuts and stir together until the flour just disappears.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe dish in 20 second intervals at 1/2 power in the microwave, stirring after each interval until melted and smooth (takes 1-2 minutes). You could also use a double boiler on the stove to melt the chocolate. Add the Nutella and stir until well combined and smooth. Set the truffle mixture in the refrigerator for about an hour. (If the chocolate is took hard to scoop in to balls, leave it sitting on the counter for 15 minutes or so. Mine wasn’t too hard.

Scoop and form the chocolate/Nutella into about 3/4 inch balls. It will be messy and feel like it’s melting in your hands. You could roll the balls on a cutting board dusted with cocoa powder if you’d like. Place the balls on a plate lined with waxed paper. Freeze the balls for about 20 minutes. (Makes about 12.) The shape of the balls doesn’t have to be perfect.

To bake the cookies---

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Take a Nutella Truffle and wrap cookie dough around it until completely covered. Place on baking sheet. Leave about 2 inches between each one, they will be big. You can make smaller cookies (still about 1 ounce each) and place a frozen truffle on top of a baked cookie right out of the oven. Or you can line the bottom of a ramekin with cookie dough. Place a truffle in the center, then cover it with more cookie dough for a decadent, molten lava treat served with ice cream! Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes. Let sit on baking sheet for about 5 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool for as long as you can stand to wait. ;)

Um, this is ridiculous. That last one, the one baked in a ramekin? I'm going to dream about that baby tonight. It's like a pizookie and a truffle had a delicious melty baby. You can bet I'll be making this sooner rather than later!

Anon--you can totally add cocoa powder to cookies. There are many recipes with a chocolate base. If you alter a regular cookie recipe, just remove the amount of flour that you add in cocoa. There are many recipes for chocolate based cookies on my blog.http://www.bakingandboys.com/2008/09/chocolate-cookies-and-chocolate-peanut.html These were one that I loved!